


It's Quiet Uptown (i never liked the quiet before)

by FuryBeam136



Series: fics fury wrote on their 3ds at like 1am [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Bittersweet, Memories, like. angst but gentle, soft angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:48:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25080394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuryBeam136/pseuds/FuryBeam136
Summary: "Listen to the waves," Ulki says, as seriously as if he were giving a command in battle. "Hear how they strike the rocks in ever so slightly different ways. When you hear them over the sounds of Phoenicis, then you can call it truly quiet up here."Reyson listens, but he hears neither.
Relationships: Leanne & Reyson (Fire Emblem), Reyson & Rafiel, Reyson/Tibarn (Fire Emblem)
Series: fics fury wrote on their 3ds at like 1am [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1454896
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34





	It's Quiet Uptown (i never liked the quiet before)

His life was always filled with music. With songs carried along the breeze like an old friend. With a melody on the air, one he could so easily pick up and sing along with. This was the way of the herons. This was the way of Serenes.

Phoenicis is different from Serenes in many ways. The first thing that strikes him is the quiet. The lack of voices raised in chorus on the wind. He resents Tibarn for taking him here. He resents the humans for lighting the fires that silenced all those voices. And yet...

It's quiet. And yet, Reyson cannot bring himself to break the silence.

*~*~*

Reyson's voice was never as beautiful as his siblings'. He sits on the cliffs of Phoenicis, and the silence settles in like a worn blanket. The only melody is the wind howling off the rocks, melancholy and quiet.

Rafiel was always the best among his siblings. The galdrar could make the universe undo itself for that gentle voice. Any song from Rafiel's lips could not be sung with such beauty if the rest of Serenes had raised their voices together. Reyson stayed up late into many nights just to hear his brother sing. Just to hear the world stop for him.

For the briefest of moments, Reyson lets the ghost of a song fall from tired lips. There's something deeply bittersweet about the quiet. He's starting to find it preferable to the ghosts of melodies drifting past him.

*~*~*

Janaff finds him on the cliffs, drifting on the edge of the stillness, watching the waves strike the shore.

"What brings you back here so often?" Janaff asks, almost as though he expects no response.

"It's quiet up here," Reyson says softly, a whisper, a breath. "I used to hate it. I don't anymore."

"Tibarn has been worrying about you."

"Let him worry. I'm fine."

The waves strike the rocks like embracing an old friend. There's a rhythm to their movement, their dance. Reyson was never much of a dancer. He always tripped over his wings, his legs, even his arms were an obstacle somehow. His siblings would laugh at him, but none more so than Leanne, with her wide eyes and graceful movements. She would laugh and laugh until her face was the delicate pink of cherry blossoms (for she was never truly red in the face, somehow always several shades lighter) and she would reach for his hand and teach him to dance until his feet ached and his face was the rich red of tomatoes.

"I might not have your heron magic, but I can see when something's wrong." Janaff sighs, sliding his feet over empty air and sitting beside Reyson. "You're an open book, Reyson. Tibarn wants me keeping an eye on you, and I'm not one to let him down."

"Tell him I don't need babysitting," Reyson huffs, standing and flying away from the cliffs.

*~*~*

Ulki is the next to come to Reyson's cliffside perch. He doesn't say a word. Reyson finds himself appreciating the quiet. Appreciating the time he has to remember, to think.

He remembers Rafiel singing everyone to sleep, a serenade of gentle words and promises of love. He remembers Leanne showing him the dress she made from fabric the colour of the pale pink blossoms that grew outside her window and bloomed in the fall. He remembers how desperately he tried to learn to sing like they did, so he could change the world for them.

"Listen to the waves," Ulki says, as seriously as if he were giving a command in battle. "Hear how they strike the rocks in ever so slightly different ways. When you hear them over the sounds of Phoenicis, then you can call it truly quiet up here."

Reyson listens, but he hears neither.

*~*~*

Reyson never liked the quiet. It was unnatural, oppressive. But now, as he stands tall on the cliffs of Phoenicis, the sea and sky all that lies before him...

The quiet embraces him with open arms, and Reyson relishes it.

When Tibarn alights beside him and Reyson turns to him with watery eyes, The quiet only becomes all the more welcome.

Tibarn's arms are strong around him. The hawk king is fierce and vicious, and yet, with Reyson in his arms, he is gentle.

"It's quiet up here," Reyson breathes.

"Yes," Tibarn agrees. "It is."


End file.
